Ding 3000: Pimp my Billy

Three young designers from Germany, taking issue with Ikea's rather bland Billy shelving units, reinvented the furniture in a series of designs that repurpose the unit. Called Pimp my Billy, the collection of design interventions cheers up a cheap bookcase to no end!

Billy Wilder takes the form of green branch growing across the Billy Bookshelf (above right). Billy Heidenreich is a shelf with a lectern attached for displaying your most beautiful photography books (below left), while the Stütze functions as an extra leg to tilt the bookcase at an angle so there's no need for book ends (below right). All the designs are beautifully made and will probably last longer than your Ikea shelving unit.

Carsten Schelling, Ralf Webermann and Sven Rudolph, all graduates of FH Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts, make up the design collective that is Ding 3000. Check out the rest of their sleek, but entertaining furniture and product design on their site.